Evil Chicken, Poultry is the Top Culprit for Food Poisoning
Its time to lock up all the chickens. We need to punish all these feather-clad criminals – enough is enough! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says poultry is the number one culprit for food poisoning and food-borne illness.
I’ve never trusted a bird that claims it can’t fly. Then what are those tasty wings for then? Making us sick! The CDC found chicken, turkey, and other poultry accounted for 17% of food-borne illness outbreaks. Beef narrowly escaped the top spot with 16% and vegetables clocked in at 14%.
Why is poultry so nasty? Salmonella is the dirty rat, along with other forms of bacteria, responsible for half the food-borne illness outbreaks.
Not exactly good PR for chicken, especially amidst a recall of 380 million eggs in 17 states due to Salmonella.
But the reason poultry makes us sick is largely our fault. People get sick when raw poultry is mishandled; such as leaving it out or storing it at improper temperatures, or not cooking it long enough to kill any bacteria. Wow, people are stupid.
Using a digital cooking thermometer is a good way to ensure chicken, especially the thick breast meat, is properly cooked.
In general, the CDC says 87 million cases of food-borne illness are reported in the United States each year, causing 371,000 hospitalizations and 5,700 deaths.
Image credit: antaean
